Game cancellations, culture clashes, and a "good enough to ship" mentality— …

Andrew Hume was a game developer working on Sega Soccer Slam for smallish developer Black Box Studio, and he loved it—for a while.

"Life in a small independent studio was pretty much perfect," he told me. "I was working with happy and talented industry veterans." Hume knew he was green, but he enjoyed the work and how much he was learning. He whistled on the way to the office. "That ended, though," he said.

Black Box was enjoying success and at that point had over 100 employees. The studio seemed on the cusp of great things and the major publishers took notice. EA purchased the company. "The culture was not destroyed overnight, but the place went from a frat house to an obvious place of cold business," Hume said. Many people left the company and new employees were brought over from EA. Hume felt like "a cog in the machine" and grew so disillusioned by the job he quit suddenly one day, without anything to fall back on.

Sega Soccer Slam was a title from Black Box Games, which was later purchased by EA

After working on another digital project and then running out of money, he had to find more work, so he returned to the world of small developers. He was eventually hired at Radical Entertainment. "It was a large but independent company with talented industry vets, free food, beer on tap... I was happy again," he said.

Two weeks later, Vivendi Universal purchased Radical, but its culture remained intact. Hume had braced for impact and was ready to leave, but he gradually relaxed and once again enjoyed his new home.

A few years later, Activision merged with Vivendi Universal. "Things did change this time," Hume said. He had been working on Scarface 2 for two years and was happy with the work. "Scarface 2 was shaping up to be awesome, the team was behind it, we were all feeling like this was going to be the best game we ever made," he said. Activision killed the project.

Hume began working with Richard Clifford at Radical on another big-name game—they both declined to say which one—and after a year of hard work, that project was cancelled as well.

"Having years of your life flushed because of a graph projection and watching 60 of your friends get laid off can destroy the magic feeling," Clifford said. He and Hume both left Radical to create MinMax games and have just released their first game, Space Pirates and Zombies.

Space Pirates and Zombies is a top-down, space action game with heavy RPG elements.

People go into the business of making video games because they're passionate. Hours are long, competition is fierce, and pay can be low. Still, if you work hard enough, one day you can get a job working for one of your favorite companies making your favorite games. Or at least that's the dream.

But increasingly, the thought of working for yet another studio has become stifling for many professional developers. The gaming industry used to rely on developers learning to create games on their own before they would get hired, but the situation is now reversed: developers increasingly spend a few years inside studios and publishers to gain experience, then drop out of the system to make their own independent games.

The main reason is simple: big-name games have never offered less job security, and with the rise of digital distribution, devs who want to sate their hunger for something more than just another wargame have viable ways to sell their own dream projects.

Why "successful" developers burn out

Audrey Leprince is in charge of operations at the Game Bakers, an independent developer of mobile games. She has extensive experience in the video game industry, most notably as the producer of Tom Clancy's Endwar. She speaks highly of that project, including the experience she gained working on a team with so many nationalities.

"Working for a major publisher can be rewarding, very quickly: you get to work on known IPs, you have job security, you get a good paycheck every month, you have the business card with the big name on it to show off to your friends," she told me.

That environment has major downsides, too. "You don't really know how much you will be listened to or if your ideas will be taken into account, how much freedom you'll have in your work, or if you'll end up crunching on a B project after the perfect project you joined for gets cancelled," she said.

That's how Eric Thoa, who is in charge of the creative content for the Game Bakers, decided to leave Ubisoft. "I would love to say 'I just wanted to live my dreams and that gave me the guts to leave behind my career with a major publisher,'" he said. "Well, that's actually the truth, but also the game I was working on got cancelled after two years of development. That was the nudge I needed."

It was no small move for Thoa, as he had spent the years between 2005 and 2009 traveling the world to work on different projects for Ubisoft's varied studios and shipping a number of games. A large publisher gave him the skills needed to do his job well, even as it gave him the motivation to leave the company.

The Game Bakers is currently working on Squids, which they describe as Angry Birds meets Worms, with RPG elements. "For the universe, Audrey and I share a passion for cephalopods of all sorts, and that was a perfect match with the controls I had in mind," Thoa said.

This is the joy of independent development: a shared love of cephalopods is a viable jumping-off point for a new project.

Good enough to ship

I once spoke to someone who had an incredibly unsexy job working on a game that was simply pushed out with no marketing budget. When I told him that copies of the game went out to press days after it was released to retail, he made a disgusted sound in the back of his throat. The game was wonderful, but it was given zero chance of success from the publisher. This was a guy who was making little money working on a game he believe in and loved, only to see it die an ugly death because someone didn't think it made financial sense to support. He was also drinking heavily, his eyes wet with anger and frustration as we talked about what had happened.

It's a story I've heard repeatedly when talking to game developers: studios get swallowed, games get canned, you're moved from a game you love to working on a licensed project and all your enthusiasm for your job is sapped away. I've heard horror stories about project leads who say that their games don't need to be fun, just "good enough to ship" in order to to meet a movie's release date or the launch of a children's television show.

The press talks to happy project leads and marketing people when a publisher wants to hype a new game, but when you meet someone who simply works on games in a bar at a show like E3 or the Game Developers Conference, you begin to see what it can be like for the rank and file.

When you're trying to attract passionate, creative professionals to create games, this whole approach becomes a liability. "Even the best of the best AAA studios are not safe these days. A lot of games get cancelled now, or don't make the expected income," Hume explained. "When this happens, 100 or so friends are shown the door, despite how much they have done in the past. I won't mention any specific titles here, but you read about it happening every other week or so."

That's not to say there aren't good studios out there, or people in the business who know the value of their developers. But there's a reason we write about these places like they're news.

Some of the best games I have played have been mods of a pre-existing game.

These mods can have a lot of effort behind them, and in my opinion can completely blow out of the water the stock game.

The game developers may have made something wonderful, and it is always lovely when independent developers, who in their spare time, make some absolutely wonderful expansions and modifications on the original, often with no money.

An example I have:

World In Conflict was a wonderful game by itself, and provided me with hours of fun, but I found a mod being created which in terms of detail and attention to realism (in terms of strategy and unit functions) absolutely blows it out of the water. The WiC Modern Warfare Mod. It is absolutely brilliant.

I think one of the best things a game can do to keep a dedicated audience is to release Mod tools and SDKs and the suchlike.

i gotta say - this is not only the most interesting and clarifying and thorough opposable thumbs article ive read, but it is truly important to the industry.

im sure a lot of developers will comment, so this is one (probably much less interesting, but a different perspective) from a gamer who knows a bunch of indie developers (admittedly mostly iOS and Fb) as well as a couple of slaves at EA: holy crap... get this info to the big studios.

"Developers are increasingly dropping out of the studio system to create their own games, with all the risk that entails."

What risk? It's riskier to code for an AAA publisher where you will be abused to the point you health fails. It's riskier to develop an idea for an AAA publisher only to have it destroyed by idiotic DRM that the legal department likes. It's riskier to tie your small studio to an AAA publisher and then have it shuttered with no notice. And, in the future, it will be riskier to be anywhere near an AAA publisher that takes marching orders from Wall Street.

It's riskier to code for an AAA publisher where you will be abused to the point you health fails. It's riskier to develop an idea for an AAA publisher only to have it destroyed by idiotic DRM that the legal department likes. It's riskier to tie your small studio to an AAA publisher and then have it shuttered with no notice. And, in the future, it will be riskier to be anywhere near an AAA publisher that takes marching orders from Wall Street.

Ever since Steam and the Mac App Store, I've been amazed at the quality of the indie games available. It's actually possible to swear off AAA developers forever and still enjoy great video games, if you want to.

I don't think it's specific to game development. This happens to every profession transitioning from 'artisanal' stage to industrial stage. It also shows the limit of the capitalistic system when dealing with complex craftsmanship.

Ever since Steam and the Mac App Store, I've been amazed at the quality of the indie games available. It's actually possible to swear off AAA developers forever and still enjoy great video games, if you want to.

"A lot of games get cancelled now, or don't make the expected income," Hume explained. "When this happens, 100 or so friends are shown the door, despite how much they have done in the past. I won't mention any specific titles here, but you read about it happening every other week or so."

Awesome! Working as intended. Feature, not bug. That's 100 talented people (and experienced) that are now freed up to work on *other* games. To start new studios and try out their own theories on how manage development in non-fail ways.

In many other (though not all) industries those 100 people (or at least the highly talented core) would be shunted sideways internally into brain-numbing make-work until the next "big" project came up, to prevent them offering their talents to competitors, and sadly a lot of them would accept this because they are terrified of the "uncertainty" of not working for a short period of time.

Getting fired is an opportunity. Organise your personal finances/life so you can take advantage of it when it inevitably happens, rather than living credit-card to credit-card so that your entire "system" goes down the drain when your job (temporarily) does.

"A lot of games get cancelled now, or don't make the expected income," Hume explained. "When this happens, 100 or so friends are shown the door, despite how much they have done in the past. I won't mention any specific titles here, but you read about it happening every other week or so."

Awesome! Working as intended. Feature, not bug. That's 100 talented people (and experienced) that are now freed up to work on *other* games. To start new studios and try out their own theories on how manage development in non-fail ways.

A bit of perverted Darwinism, isn't it? It does suck to get canned from your company, but I have to agree it does open the doors to new ideas and developments in game creation. I can't imagine the sad state of the industry without the "freed" devs pushing the envelope on game design.

Excellent article! I'm going to spread this one around. It reminds me of my discussions with my parents back in highschool about where I wanted to go with my passion for computer programming in a career. Computer game development came up as an option and they said that they knew someone who was in the industry (forgot who) that got laid off from a big name publisher. Even back in the early 00s this was a problem. Job security always was really poor in the computer game development business. However, then we didn't have as many options for self-publication as we do now. Maybe doing something indie would be an interesting venture. I feel settled into my career for the moment, though.

I will add my ditto to Kevin McKenna and Donniction. Esp. Donniction - If the big studios come knocking, put up a do not disturb sign.

I have been truly amazed at all the games that have been released in the past few years. It really makes it hard for me to finish my own projects and I have a couple of non-game related projects that need a lot of work completed rather quickly.

In my (limited) experience I can pick up a good indie game for $10-$20, while a so-called AAA title might cost $50-$100 (Australia, the land of artificially inflated game prices). I find myself wondering if the reason for the price difference is simply that the AAA title has millions poured into it that has to be recovered or if its simply that the big boys like their huge profit margins.

Are there examples of true indie games that cost a lot, or titles from the big publishers that are down in the $10-$20 range? And what were they like? Is there any interesting relationship?

(Fyi, though I'm not sure if its relevant, I read about all the new games but probably only seriously play one new game a year. $20 is about the most I'm willing to spend on a game (single-income family so not much spare cash), which means I'll buy that indie game outright but I'm more likely to pirate the AAA title and buy it later when there's a special on Steam.)

It isn't necessarily risky to work under an established company. They have resources to handle cancelled projects and failed games, that's why they can make the decision to cancel rather than finish it and release even to earn back some of the money. You are safer working in a corporate structure than as your own business owner. Money comes in steadily no matter what you work on and you'll only get fired if the studio runs out of money; and the bigger guys have enough cash and investors and credit to sustain through quite a lot of failed projects.

The biggest issues is with the growing budget for AAA titles. Seriously, 100 mill to 250 mill to create a game is insane. THAT is dangerous. If it doesn't pan out, that is a company breaking development; which is, i guess, why Epic is coming back to PC gaming... because you don't need to be creating 100 million dollar games. You don't need to bet big to lose it all or win it all. Unless you're someone like Blizzard/EA, you won't be able to handle that monetary hit. The only thing that should cost that much are MMORPGs due to their expansive nature and longer term monetisation business model; and even then, many companies can produces rather good MMORPG without spending 100 million.

If a studio spends 150 mill on a game, they need to sell 4-5 million boxes to break even. There aren't all that many games that sell 5 mill units. The current business model is nowhere near as flexible as the MMORPG market. If you can't make a profit selling those boxes/DL, it's screwed. The developers get screwed and the size of the project necessitating hiring contract/short/medium term developers means once it's done, you're out of a job.

The allure of smaller development is that they are lean, fast, dedicated teams producing games they can focus on for a fraction of the larger budget games; yet the potential to sell in the millions is just as good (with good media relations and community management). You're betting small to make it big. Big studios are betting big to make it big(ger). The mindset and business model behind the small development is much more sensible and sustainable than the movie-budget business model. Financing is the biggest hurdle but one that is probably easier to navigate around than trying not to get your game axed in a corporate environment.

Corporations are corporations. Suits are suits. That's how they operate. When people sell their studios to a corporate buyer, they know exactly what is happening. They traded independence for security and everything that results from it.

It's a bit incoherent but there's a lot more I'd like to say.... It's an interesting subject.

The side of Indie Devs: It's a more positive and enjoyable atmosphere with room for innovation and creativity. The pay can vary and there's always the worry about the next bust, but that's why everyone works hard to make a quality title (and it's part of the passion).

The side of corporate: Money usually isn't an issue and if you're EA and own basically the vast majority of all games on the market (even by a little), you can afford rushed shipment, poor quality titles, and not care about innovation because everything is formulated and cut-throat. But, even with corporate games come quality titles even if they are seldom.

Overall: You're damned if you do, and you're damned if you don't. However gamers become part of the industry because it's a passion. You take away that passion they're nothing but white-collar programmers that want to smear themselves with gasoline, light up and jump out of a building after the 10th year (if you make it that far). There are some major corporations that operate like they're indie but only until someone at the top decides to sell-out when they feel like retiring early.

my 2cents

@ouenko

Not even MMORPG's should cost hundreds of milions to make. Maybe 5-20mil but not more.Once you have created your game engine and toolsets you're good to go. The worlds should be done through a procedural algorithm which basically builds the world for you and then you do the manual touch-ups here and there which isn't terribly hard with the right level designers and tools. The backend of an MMORPG is fairly straightforward and basic at its core. The most difficult part is to create the tools and the game engine but it seems that most corporations use something like havok, unreal engine 2.5 or 3, and so on unless they designed one specifically for their company to use.

The biggest cost in MMO's are given to the designers and marketing. You'll need a lot of designers to come up with the character concepts, costumes, and so on... and that can cost a pretty penny considering a designer can easily get $60k/year. Now add 20 designers to a team and a production of 2-years. Ouch haha

100mil for a game is just overkill IMO. Games don't have to be hyper-realistic. They just need to have better game engines, better gameplay, less bugs, and overall more enjoyability. I bet you Angry Birds only cost $2000 to create and it netted more than a lot of modern games within the first few months and the concept is simple and the graphics are basic.

"It's not about working less, it's about working in a way that resonates better with what we want in life."

That's why I will probably never try to get into the games industry. I will be listening for positions in my favorite studios and at the same time I will be honing my programming and math skills, however, if the good studios don't work out for some reason, the games industry is not an option for me. The important people who actually do the important work are the programmers, artists, game designers etc., the technical and the art people. The rest are parasites, useless weight that must be dropped (offence intended) in order to set creative people free. Lawyers, business men and investors are symptoms of an inefficient method of creating actual value.

As long as games are stifled by business requirements crap will come out 95% of the cases. Games can still be awesome if businesses have enough money but as we all know, money in our system is almost never enough. Hats off to Valve, Blizzard, id, Epic, Naughty Dog, Insomniac and the other studios that still manage to be awesome and be in business, however they are exceptions in a sea of talent and I am not sure how much longer they will be able to maintain their awesomeness.

Ever since Steam and the Mac App Store, I've been amazed at the quality of the indie games available. It's actually possible to swear off AAA developers forever and still enjoy great video games, if you want to.

Great story. I am getting kind of tired of the big name titles. It does start to feel like it is all the same. I have had some really good experiences with some of the indie games I have tried. However my problem is finding the good ones. I haven't gotten used to the idea that I have to read more reviews and do more of my own investigation to find the games. The big names titles are there right in your face, and hard to miss. I think the success of indie games is going to come down to us users getting used to the new way of getting and finding out about games.

I don't think this trend is limited to games however. All kinds of software is now easier for indies to sell: iPhone appstore, android market place, Mac OS X appstore etc. I think this will start having big impact on the industry. I have worked in small start up like companies before and work for a big one now, and I feel a lot of the same frustrations. In a big company you just don't have the same creative freedom. There are just so many ideas that management type of people don't get and are not willing to try out. You have to build it and show people before they get it.

I think a lot about doing something on my own. I am willing to lose a fair amount of money for trying out my own thing. The way I look at it, it is not really losing money. It is an investment in skills. If you fail, you will have gained a lot of experience you would not otherwise have gained. I think it would make it possible to get a better job in the regular industry.

Ever since Steam and the Mac App Store, I've been amazed at the quality of the indie games available. It's actually possible to swear off AAA developers forever and still enjoy great video games, if you want to.

Welcome to a decade ago Mac user.

Welcome to being a douche PC user.

It is kind of funny to see all the Apple users that were more or less oblivious to the existence of games for years suddenly discover within the last year or two that games (a) exist, and (b) are fun.

I don't mean that in a mean way or a "ha ha you were all wrong" way, just as a harmless, humorous observation. I hope you will take it in that spirit.

It is kind of funny to see all the Apple users that were more or less oblivious to the existence of games for years suddenly discover within the last year or two that games (a) exist, and (b) are fun.

I don't mean that in a mean way or a "ha ha you were all wrong" way, just as a harmless, humorous observation. I hope you will take it in that spirit.

Long time Mac user here. I've been playing indie games on and off since the early nineties on our platform of choice. Of course, we never had the sheer amount and variety that the Windows platform enjoyed. I agree with that. Still, we had our gems.

It sucks when a company's culture change due to circumstances the heart of creativity diminishes gradually over time. But it hardly should change developers involvement in game making why sulk about losing a project u work hard for if ur skills are at that level U should also learned to know what the game changer is and adapt on it.

U know whats important in a game, in any game pertain heroics , master-skillz , fun those define a true cool game that even your grandma wants to play. Give a simple mechanic with which a player learns to master unlocking a massive visual effect to throw a crowd in awe and your game is in.

Simply put immersive game play is more then playing its also control freedom that was always the golden rule for game curiosity. Indie game developers should not only create their dream but should keep those important aspect to game play at focus and in mind.

Great article Ben! Working for a big corporate publisher is certainly more soul-destroying. I can't possibly imagine what people go through when they put in those crunch time 90 hour weeks for a few months only to see Ubisoft screw the game up with a stupid scheme and then wonder why it didn't sell.

Getting away from those moron MBAs is by itself worth a fair bit of risk.

IdaGno wrote:

Having personally pledged to boycott any & all cross-platform developers & puiblishers, not to mention Draconian DRM schemes,I haven't bought anything released post-2002.

Yes,I realize that mine is the sound of one hand calpping, but what else can one person do?

Unless your idea of "draconian DRM" is "everything" (including all forms of digital distribution), there are a ton of games that fit these rather ridiculous criteria easily. Several were mentioned in this article. Are you sure you're just not overly self-righteous and not really interested in games?